[Rant Boss]

This article originally appeared on the Rant's Home Page.

By Bill Whitney

I always get a kick out of listening to what firefighters are thinking and what they have to say. The adage of “opinions are like assholes and everybody has one” fits so perfectly when describing your normal firefighter. Want to know what’s wrong with your car? Talk to your buddies at the station and you’ll leave with at least 5 different causes and 5 possible cures. Think back to that last call that didn’t go ‘quite as you would have liked it to’ and I’ll bet you’ll find a plethora of arm chair chiefs who come out of the woodwork to tell you how ‘it should have been done!’ The bottom line is that we all have ideas, and we all have somewhat different expectations. Ideas are something that we can use to drive forward progress. Ideas bring out creativity and creativity leads to new techniques. The key components are the expectations. These expectations will ‘drive the train that pulls the ideas into reality’. Wow -- a novel concept, right? So why don’t we focus more on expectations?

We did a little research with our officers a little while back. One of the interesting points we noticed was that we got better results when the exact expectations of results where ‘known by all’ involved. This may sound pretty simple and like a ‘no brainer’ but the results (after we made a few changes) were pretty dramatic. For an example, prior to 2001, we were like most departments in that when apparatus responded to a call, the expectation was that water would be delivered to the fire. I would call that pretty reasonable, wouldn’t you? On most private dwelling fires, the second, or third, or even mutual aid companies would all have a chance to ‘get in on the action and fight a little fire’. Pretty much the average results that we typically see on a regular basis, right? I don’t know about you, but I’m not thinking that being ‘average’ is a very good thing! I do believe in being ‘exceptional’ and I firmly believe that 99% of all firefighters want to be exceptional and perform in an exceptional manner. Therefore, we decided to change our operating mentality and raise the ‘Bar of Expectation’ (a term my members have come to both love and hate!). Oh yea, tthere were some unhappy campers back then with ‘the changes.' But today’s product that we put on the street is so far superior to what we thought was pretty darn good in 2001.

You have choices, within your department, to decide if you want to be average/mediocre or exceptional. Every day is another day where you’ll need to make decisions on how or what you will do, as well as how you will accomplish the task. Back in 1974, my draft number for the military was 28. Granted, I would have been happy if it was 328, but that didn’t happen. I could have waited to be drafted and probably become a door gunner on a Huey. The only problem I saw with that was that the average life span of a door gunner was about 9 days. Needless to say, I made a choice to enlist -- where I had more options to choose from as I didn’t like the idea of an ‘average life span’ option. There is a pretty interesting thread in the Rant's forum about whether or not there should be physical standards in the volunteer fire service. Let me just say this, you have a choice to eat healthy, perform some physical activity on a regular basis, or stay the course that you’re on now. It’s all in what YOUR expectation of yourself is. In my world, if you’re going to be a combat/firefighter, you are expected to be in good physical condition. The expectation is that you can perform your assigned skills without a great deal of difficulty. The expectation is that if you are operating on an apparatus or on the ‘fire ground’, you are expected to be capable of handling any and all tasks, including RIT/RIC/FAST duties if assigned. If you’re a company officer, the expectation is that you will have successfully passed an appropriate officers test for that position and you can effectively lead and command your crew(s) as the tasks are assigned. Let me just say this:

ANY ONE CAN EASILY BE AVERAGE/MEDIOCRE AS IT’S A PRETTY DAMN EASY THING TO DO!

So let’s look at the expectation of the public you serve. Do they care if you are career or volunteer? Heck no! They are calling 911 because they have a problem that they are not trained to handle or simply do not know what to do. THEIR expectation is that you can, and will, handle the situation. THEIR expectation is that you will be there to protect them and their property, perform the necessary tasks that are needed to be performed and that you’ll make good decisions when doing so. They also expect you stay reasonably safe and stay alive! They expect you to be there when they need you. They don’t expect you to die, or make bad decisions that will lead to your death. I know this is a touchy subject, but when it gets right down to it, firefighters typically die because someone made bad or inappropriate decisions. This can come from lack of information, bad decisions, lack of skills, or lack of knowledge. Go read that last sentence again, and you’ll notice that all of the four reasons can be avoided. The expectation is that you will LIVE to help others. When you die, someone with less experience has to fill your boots. Whoever said there is honor in dying as a firefighter is full of crap! The honor is in living and serving as a firefighter! Of course I’m not saying it’s disgraceful to die in the line of duty; I’m just saying we need to work and be smarter to do everything in our power to ensure that we do not die in the line of duty.

I’m not suggesting that you have an overnight, candlelight vigil and handholding session where you decide that magically you’ll set the bar of expectations to obtain the same qualifications of any Class 1 department in the country by noon the next day. However, I am suggesting that if you want to exceed the expectations placed upon yourselves, that it will take time. You will need to plot a course of action and lay out a reasonable timeline. For example, we took the first year and only focused strictly on firefighter skills. The next year we focused on getting the driver/operators/chauffeurs to where we wanted their skill levels to be. The following year was the ‘Year of the Officer’ as they were grilled and filled with the information that they needed to do the job successfully. You may be able to do this in less time or it may take longer. But if you do nothing, and just stay at the status quo, you’re selling yourself short! If you’re not taking one or two ‘outside’ courses on different subjects every year, you’re missing the boat. The idea is to improve your knowledge and skills, constantly and endlessly. By doing so, you will almost automatically arm yourself with information, knowledge, and skills that will help you do your job better, and more importantly, be as safe as possible.

Don’t be afraid the raise the “Bar of Expectation’. Think in small but productive steps. One of the ‘expectations’ that we applied to our officers was to arrive at an incident, do a ‘size-up’ of the all the various problems that needed to be worked, figure fire load and flow, and assign the appropriate crews to specific tasks. They thought this sounded pretty easy to do until they tried it the first time. Alas, all was not well in ‘living the gravy-life world’ and they learned there is quite a bit involved. They pissed, they moaned, and they whined like little kids, but they really wanted to excel and quite frankly, they did! The expectations were that they needed to be able to accomplish this task and they kept working at it until they got it down. What does this mean and why go through this exercise? Results! I’s all about results. Remember earlier when I mentioned that a few years ago, the second, third, or even mutual aid companies got involved in combat activities? Well, by raising the bar, training hard and focused, and with everyone knowing the expectations, there hasn’t been a private dwelling fire where it wasn’t significantly knocked down before the second engine arrived -- which is typically not more than a couple of minutes after the first.

So what is the end result from our ‘change’? We now have a bunch of cocky, borderline arrogant firefighters that are pretty damn good at what they do. I might add that I’m pretty darn proud of them, too! We supplied the framework, they did all the work. Kudos to the officers and firefighters! They were a bit ‘concerned at first, but they have seen the results, have been involved in the process of change, and are pretty excited to be doing what they do today. The only thing we had to do was provide a forum and the training to get them there. Even the ‘out of shape’ guys are getting on the band wagon by playing (of all things) pickle ball, in order to get in shape to do the job! Who would have ever thought that would work? Yet it is!

So it’s your call, you decide. Do you just stay status quo, or do you set off on a path of excellence and raise the expectations? Do you want to be average or exceptional? That’s my challenge to you. Format your program for what you need and what works for you. Then, set your expectations and use benchmarks to track your progress. Prove out their skills by testing and evaluation. It’s your call, you decide. Oh, one more fun fact for those who might think ‘we can’t do that and it’s too much to for volunteers to do,' here you go! My department is primarily a volunteer department augmented by career staff. The expectations are the same for ALL positions. Yes, it can be done, and never believe that you can’t do something. You’ll only be settling for second place if you do.

Remember: Unless you’re the lead dog, the view never changes.

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Bill Whitney is an Assistant Chief of the Milton Fire Department (Washington state), and is the President of Outreach Emergency Services Program; a non-profit organization that assists in the development of Fire/Rescue, EMS and Communications programs in developing countries throughout the world. http://www.oesp.net/index.html

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